Nazari is the son of Armenian immigrants who escaped the ethnic genocide taking place in their country after World War I. Although he grew up in Los Angeles, Nazari’s “ideals and growth are intertwined” in the unique mix of American and Armenian cultures. Taking a trip to his familial homeland has been a life-long goal.

On his first visit, Nazari was taken aback by the visible and emotional scars of Soviet domination. “After World War I, Armenia was taken under Soviet rule until the 90s,” he says. “The effects of cultural suppression and tumultuous wars in the region were evident upon arrival, and I understood these new surroundings would inform my work in a very different way.”

Even through the rough landscapes, he could see the beauty. “Regardless of the endless strife, it was an incredible place – in a way that has never been discussed or shown,” he adds.

It was then that Nazari began searching for the right angle for his Armenian photo series. “I was just led by my curiosity and tried to explain this world through my eyes, hoping to show the human experience in an unexpected and honest way,” he explains. “I was looking forward to making work that did not feel restricted and suffocated by modern photographic technology nor would make an inaccurate projection of Armenia and its people.”

He very quickly noticed that everyone in Armenia seemed to own a Lada automobile, a boxy, utilitarian model that has been in production since the early 1970s. “Unfamiliar to anyone who isn’t from a Soviet state, I was enamored by its significance to the society,” Nazari says. The photographer, who has previously collaborated with hip-hop stars like Travis Scott, Future, and 2 Chainz, started framing his shots around these ubiquitous icons of Soviet control.

Nazari snapped pictures of women selling fruit out of their Lada’s trunk, men resting against their Lada outside a market, and a Lada’s bullet-riddled front end parked against a backdrop of an Oriental Rug. He took shots of shiny new Ladas as well as heaps of discarded versions ready for demolition. “It was fascinating to witness so many different people from so many walks of life still dependent on this automobile,” the artist explains.

One of Nazari’s favorite photo moments was his picture of a beat-up Lada sitting right in front of two Armenian flags. “Parked at the border between two ex-Soviet countries [Armenia and Azerbijian] in the exact region of disputed land and endless conflict since the fall of the Soviet Union. The symbolism was almost poetic,” he notes.

Nazari hopes that his visual exposures of Armenia will help the people still living there to start an open dialogue. He says that “30 years later, most left with a turbulent post-Soviet experience of political and economic turmoil, a destabilized region, and still dependent and at the mercy of the Soviet power, the hopes and expectations of these ex-Soviet states have failed to materialize. Maybe war with our neighbors isn’t the right answer.”

The post Alex Nazari Photographs Armenia Through the Lens of the Lada Car first appeared on Dornob.

A week after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, attacking multiple cities across the country and killing hundreds of civilians, businesses around the world quickly began cutting ties with Russia. Among the first of the luxury retailers to suspend operations in the world’s largest country were Hermès and Richemont, the owner of the Swiss Cartier. The latter, which has about a dozen directly operated shops in Russia, posted that it was suspending all its commercial activities in the country as of March 3rd.

In a statement on March 4th, Hermès, known for their costly Birkin handbags, said, “Deeply concerned by the situation in Europe at this time, it’s with regret that we have taken the decision to temporarily close our store in Russia and pause all our commercial activities…We will continue to stand by our local teams.” The high-end retailer operates three stores within the country.

Later the same day, LVMH, the parent company of fashion firms Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Bulgari, announced it would close its 124 Russian boutiques “given the current circumstances in the region,” according to a spokesperson. That evening, French firm Kering, owner of Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, and Saint Laurent, decided to close its two stores that employ a total of 180 Russian residents, citing “growing concerns regarding the current situation in Europe.”

A statement from Chanel in a LinkedIn post soon followed. “Given our increasing concerns about the current situation, the growing uncertainty, and the complexity to operate, Chanel decided to temporarily pause its business in Russia. We will no longer deliver into Russia, we will close our boutiques, and we already suspended our e-commerce.”

While it would be nice to believe all these companies have shuttered their Russian shops out of anti-war solidarity, the fact that economic sanctions against the country have already disrupted the supply chains to get luxury goods in was certainly a factor. And with Visa and Mastercard both blocking transactions from multiple Russian financial institutions, doing business in Russia was already becoming difficult for the high-end stores, making it a much easier choice to temporarily close their doors.

Perhaps that’s why so many of the fashion houses expressed “concern” in their carefully worded statements without condemning the actions of Vladimir Putin and his forces – in an effort to not burn any bridges for future dealings. Besides, according to Bernstein Research, luxury fashion in Russian only makes up 2 percent of global revenues for most of the industry.

While several other luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton and Valentino, made large donations to humanitarian and refugee organizations in support of the Ukrainian people under attack, one designer who has spoken out is Italian legend Giorgio Armani. During his February 27th Milan Fashion Week show, the 87-year old had his models strut in silence to make a statement.

“My decision not to use any music was taken as a sign of respect towards the people involved in the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine,” he posted on his Twitter account. On the sidelines of the show he added, “The best thing to do is send a message that we don’t want to celebrate because something very disturbing is happening around us.”

The post Luxury Brands Halt Business in Russia as Ukraine Conflict Rages first appeared on Dornob.

https://twitter.com/RUOligarchJets/status/1503389361907417094?cxt=HHwWjIC-uZmqjt0pAAAA

Updated every few hours, the Russian Oligarch Jets account publishes travel times and maps of the locations of private jets owned by some of Russia’s top billionaires, including Oleg Deripaska, Mihail Prokhorov, Roman Abramovich, Alisher Usmanov, Viktor Vekselberg, Alexander Abramov, and Leonid Mikhelson. The account, which has racked up over 400,000 followers, uses data scraped from publicly available air traffic information and a list of private jets and helicopters that was already being tracked by a blog called Radar Spots.

“I’m sure some people will try to kick some of these oligarchs out of the US or their country as they find out they’re here,” Sweeney told Euronews Next. “I don’t really expect much trouble since I’m here in the US.”

https://twitter.com/PutinJet/status/1503295525147361286?cxt=HHwWjIC-jZfU49wpAAAA

Sweeney is even tweeting the location of a jet suspected to be used by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin himself, but warns that the information may not be accurate because Putin uses several planes and flight data in Russia is hard to come by. Another account created by the American teenager, @RussiaYachts, tracks the superyachts owned by many of the same Russian oligarchs. That information is augmented by reports on yachts that have been seized, and locations of some yachts attempting to hide in friendly ports with their locator transmitters turned off.

The Biden Administration has released a fact sheet on United States government attempts to target Russian oligarchs enabling Putin’s invasion. “These individuals have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people, and some have elevated their family members into high-ranking positions. Others sit atop Russia’s largest companies and are responsible for providing the resources necessary to support Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. These individuals and their family members will be cut off from the U.S. financial system, their assets in the United States will be frozen and their property will be blocked from use.”

Alisher Usmanov is specifically mentioned as a close ally of Putin whose yacht was seized by Germany. The European Union, the UK, and others have also gone after the assets of Russia’s oligarchs, many of whom have placed most of their fortunes in assets located outside of Russia, including sports teams and real estate in cities like New York and London.

Sweeney previously drew international attention with a Twitter account tracking Elon Musk’s private jet, which Musk described as a “security risk.” In a direct message to Sweeney on Twitter, Musk said “I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase,” and offered $5,000 to the teen in return for disabling the account. Sweeney counter-offered with $50,000 and an internship, but Musk never replied, and has since blocked him on Twitter. The account, @ElonJet, is still active, but appears to be thwarted by Musk’s efforts to hide his travels.

The post Teen Famous for Antagonizing Elon Musk is Now Tracking the Private Jets of Russian Oligarchs first appeared on Dornob.

If you’ve seen The Great, Hulu’s comedic re-imagination of Catherine’s life starring Elle Fanning, you already know about the horse. By all accounts, Catherine was bold, fearless, and sexually liberated, qualities that many people found (and still find) intimidating. Though she died in her own bed of a stroke at the age of 67, an undisputed historical fact, people were so scandalized by her sexuality and vigor during her life that they started whispering that her death actually occurred while copulating with a horse, a rumor that has persisted ever since. It probably didn’t help that she was kind of a horse girl, frequently seen hanging out in the stables. In the series, horse-related rumors start to dog the Empress long before her death.

But one rumor that does appear to be true is the existence of two pieces of truly jaw-dropping X-rated furniture. You’re going to want to check out this Buzzfeed piece examining the table and chair in all their pornographic glory, because it’s absolutely hilarious. The furniture was discovered by Wehrmacht soldiers in 1941, who were invading the palaces as part of Operation Barbarossa, an attempt by Hitler to overthrow the Soviet regime. They supposedly took these two photographs of the custom-made furniture before the palaces were bombed, and their contents destroyed in the ensuing fires.

Though their existence was only officially documented some 150 years after her death, historians are pretty confident these pieces were Catherine’s. People had long talked about Catherine’s legendary erotic furniture, which was likely hidden away in private rooms after her son Paul I succeeded her on the throne. In fact, they said it was part of an entire “sex room” Catherine had crafted for her proclivities. There’s still some question, however, as to whether the accounts of the Nazis who photographed the pieces can really be trusted. In any case, the photographed pieces were recreated by a French furniture maker in lurid color to preserve their memory.

While the lewdest rumors about Catherine the Great were most likely invented by her political enemies, there’s no denying her sexual voraciousness. During her three decades of rule, which began when she was forced into an arranged marriage at the age of 16 to Peter, her second cousin, she’s estimated to have had affairs with as many as 22 different men. Peter was said to be a childlike alcoholic who spent most of his time playing with toy soldiers while Catherine took comfort elsewhere. Among her paramours was Russian military officer Sergei Saltykov, thought to be the father of one or more of her children. Stanslauv Poniatowski fathered another one of her daughters, and Russian lieutenant Grigory Orlov, who helped her overthrow Peter, may have fathered one of her sons.

A recent dramatization of Catherine’s rule starring Helen Mirren, HBO’s Catherine the Great, captures some of the affairs that occurred in the ruler’s later years. Among them was one of her favorites, army commander Grigory Potempki (she is said to have cast his “elephantine sexual equipment” in porcelain so she could “console herself” when he was away). The series also brings to life reports that Catherine had potential lovers road-tested by her best friend, lady-in-waiting Countess Praskovya Bruce.

Some may be eager to demonize Catherine for her liberal sexuality, but the historical timeline shows that she embarked on each of these affairs one at a time, and truly loved many of her partners. For, as the real Catherine once wrote, “I cannot live for a single hour without love.”

The post Russian Empress Catherine the Great Collected Wild X-Rated Furniture first appeared on Dornob.

“Our company is developing technologies in the field of facial recognition, as well as speech, autonomous navigational artificial intelligence, and other areas of robotics,” reads an official Promobot statement. “Since 2019, we have been actively manufacturing and supplying humanoid robots to the market. Our new clients want to launch a large-scale project, and as for this, they need to license a new robot appearance to avoid legal delays.”

Promobot actually received so many applications for this that they had to shut down their search. Over 20,000 people responded, some perhaps seeing the opportunity as a ticket to immortality. But what, exactly, does it mean to hand over the rights to your face forever? No doubt, the answer to that question will be in the fine print of the legal documents the winner will have to sign, but we have to wonder whether you’d be barred from using your own image to promote yourself or your business in any capacity for the rest of your (natural) life.

Promobot’s as-yet-unnamed assistant is being developed for an unidentified American company that plans to supply it for commercial use throughout North America and the Middle East. The process of creating the robot will involve making a 3D model of the applicant’s face and body and recording 100 hours of speech to allow for the development of the robot’s voice.

Here’s an important consideration: how good is Promobot at creating a robot that looks like a person and not a terrifying villain from a bad sci-fi movie? Judge for yourself. In 2019, the company unveiled its Robo-C project, which will produce autonomous androids that can be made to look like any person on Earth. It can’t walk, but its face has 18 moving parts capable of producing 600 micro-expressions. Promobot is already taking orders for Robo-Cs, including a clone of Albert Einstein for a robot exhibition and clones of the mother and father of a Middle Eastern family, presumably for private use.

“Imagine a replica of Michael Jordan selling basketball uniforms and William Shakespeare reading his own texts in a museum,” says Aleksei Iuzhakov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Promobot. “We can build a linguistic model based on popular phrases of a particular person – the robot will communicate and answer questions by analyzing frequent expressions of the ‘original’ and using a certain context of knowledge of this person.”

It’s unclear whether Promobot has ways to ensure that their clones will be used for reasonably legitimate purposes, and with the express permission of the models or their next of kin. After all, dead people never signed up for this. Right now, their robotic copies look a little janky, but who knows how technology will progress over the next couple decades. The prospect of running into realistic robotic clones of people you know is a little unsettling, don’t you think?

The post This Robot Company Will Pay You $200K for Permanent Rights to Your Face and Voice first appeared on Dornob.

Among the most recent is GATHER, an immersive experience at the 2019 Sleep&Eat event in London. Providing a home for the VIPs of the show and for press meetings, the room is designed around a large-scale light installation surrounded by circular seating. A floral print designed expressly for the space covers nearly every surface, from the floor to the curtains. This design won an honorable mention in the iDesign Awards.

At SIXTY, one of the highest restaurants in Europe, a forest of birch trees stretches from the floor to the ceilings. Sitting atop the luxury Federation tower, the glass-and-metal restaurant on the 62nd floor boasts 360-degree views of Moscow and a transparent ceiling that’s nearly 40 feet high at its peak. Needless to say, it’s a unique environment made all the more dramatic by a mix of 1950s Japanese and 1960s European design influences.

At the Ritz Carlton Moscow, Megre brings the visuals of Italian tailoring to a conceptual gourmet restaurant called SARTORIA LAMBERTI. At the heart of the restaurant is a glass enclosure filled with sewing machines, bolts of fabric, and mannequins that are actually functional. Each guest receives a handkerchief with their monogram made on demand. Images of dress forms line the walls.

HUMANS is a seafood restaurant in Moscow with a billowing ceiling that aims to create the feeling of being underwater. “As you walk in the door your eyes are immediately drawn to the walls and ceiling with a dark-grey texture mesh that resembles waves,” says the designer. Moss and ferns are set into the walls, and a “river” of blue resin runs through the center of each table.

PPL is another Moscow restaurant located in a fashionable district. Megre explains that “as the designers we aspired to create an uncommon and trendy space that draws versatile people regardless of their occupation, lifestyle, or mindset. With the help of a unique interior full of air and energy, we managed to build up a lively and vibrant atmosphere of a club and restaurant without underrating the comfort and the kitchen.”

At SEIJI, a Japanese restaurant in Moscow run by chef Seiji Kusano, a cloud-like ceiling treatment paired with mirrors makes a small space feel expansive. “The decorative rice-paper ceiling acts like waves or clouds – their rhythm and design sets a new seascape aesthetic,” Megre says.

YUNOST (which means “youth” in Russian) offers high-end Georgian cuisine overlooking the city of St. Petersburg from the fifth and sixth floors of a shopping center. Austere lines and a neutral color scheme balance out eye-catching decorative elements like strands of beads hanging from the ceiling.

It’s impossible to get bored while hanging at out at DON’T TELL MAMA, a venue in Moscow that’s a restaurant by day, and a bar and club by night. Virtually every surface is adorned with quirky sculptural objects, flamboyant animal print textiles, and cloudy mercury glass. The bar alone is covered in 30,000 coins.

We’re certainly excited to see what mouthwatering designs the firm cooks up next.

The post When Restaurant Interiors are This Incredible, Who Cares About the Food? first appeared on Dornob.

The result of each experiment comes down to a combination of skill and coincidence. Fedorova takes samples from her collection of organisms, stored in plastic containers in a drawer at her home, and basically “draws” with them onto the Petri dishes. Each one is allowed to grow for between five and 20 days. The results vary depending on which organisms come into contact with each other, how they react, and whether any contamination is present.

“As usual, all of the most successful experiments are born by chance, when you least expect it,” the artist writes on Instagram. “I remember the day when I tried to transplant some colonies with a loop in the lab, and nothing came of it, there was just simply no growth and the final picture was completely different. When I sow my cups, I dance, touching everything around, singing wonderful songs and mentally floating in the air, collecting microscopic particles. Sometimes it seems to me like I’m collecting tiny spirits, that show themselves for a second [before] disappearing again. This is no longer microbiology, not even art, this is probably what micro-quantum entanglement looks like.”

Close-up images of each composition reveal bizarre landscapes of wrinkled jelly-like substances, fuzzy balls resembling pom-poms, fine glittering dusts produced by millions of spores, and what looks like bubbling witches’ brews. Some of these striking creations call to mind alien planets. Fedorova sometimes carries out her process of “seeding” the Petri dishes in public as a sort of performance art, and she’s even turned some of her painterly scenes into imagery printed onto textiles.

“We are all swimming in the ocean of tiny spores and organisms, breathing them in, and carrying them on the top of our skin and inside the body,” the artist told Colossal. “I was interested in this parallel between the physical world we can touch and also another physical world, which also presents, but is kind of metaphysical, invisible, somewhere between the air layers, vibrations, energies, nature.”

Slime molds are some of the most fascinating organisms on Earth. If you ever come across an absolutely bizarre-looking substance in the woods, chances are you’ve found one. Feeding on bacteria, yeasts, and fungi, slime molds exist as single-celled organisms when food is abundant but congregate and move as a single collective body when needed to detect food sources. In this state, they might look like clusters of blood vessels, coral, beads, or abstract graphic shapes. They don’t have brains, but they’re smart, remembering the locations of food sources and even completing complex mazes. Doesn’t that make these Petri dish creations even more incredible?

The post Dasha Plesen Turns Slime Molds and Spores into Vivid Graphic Art first appeared on Dornob.

In their installation “The Wild Within,” Canadian-Dutch artist/photographer Ryan Koopmans and Swedish digital artist/photographer Alice Wexell take this type of creative reimagining to the next level by blending past and present through a combination of the digital and the physical, breathing exciting new life into abandoned Soviet-era architecture.

The project began when the creative duo visited the Georgian town of Tskaltubo, taking photographs over a period of several years of the many ruins that exist throughout the area. Inspired by the broken-down, shattered remains that now stand in place of luxury and splendor, the pair collaborated to create a new vision: “a surreal collision between past and future.”

The deserted buildings, left in various states of disrepair and decay, provided the perfect backdrop for the two artists. Using their combined experience in the digital art world, the pair juxtaposed the bright greens of nature with the stark yet austere remains of buildings that haven’t seen life since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The city of Tskaltubo was once a bustling destination known for its healing waters and luxurious health spas. The buildings now left to rot and corrode were once vast, glorious peons representing the larger wealth and influence of the Soviet Union at the height of its power. Abandoned since the 1980s, they have been left to decay and collapse — a somewhat apt, if not cruel, metaphor.

Thanks to Koopmans and Wexell, these spaces are being renewed through the magic of modern technology. By creating animated images of lush vegetation and bright flowers and cleverly integrating them into the existing architecture, the pair have made something new and beautiful. The photos literally come to life, transforming into videos that are haunting, surreal, and a stark reminder of how manmade structures can be abandoned yet given new life through their return to nature.

The project is ambitious but prescient, as some of the sites have since been demolished in real life. But the nostalgia-inducing video series will continue to exist as a testament of the beauty that can be found even in the ruins of former grandeur. Koopmans hopes the works will create “a sense of surreal tranquility while referencing the themes of urban exploration, architectural history, and the resurgence of nature.” This video series certainly does just that, as it poignantly reflects how nature reclaims what is hers long after man has abandoned it.

Seeing the breeze gently flow through the greenery and weave its way through the once splendid and magnificent architecture is a bittersweet experience. Yet it reminds us once again of the power of design and its ability to transform our surroundings, sometimes even recapturing what has been abandoned or lost.

The post The Wild Within: Digital Artists Help Nature Reclaim Abandoned Soviet Architecture first appeared on Dornob.

Led by chief architect Boris Voskoboynikov and creative department head Maria Akhremenkova, VOX produced an 11,200-square-foot, two-story lounge that includes a restaurant, bar, conference room, private meeting cubicles, and even a child’s play area.

Several statement pieces in the lounge point visitors towards the stars. The focal point of both levels is the floating staircase that orbits around an illuminated elevator. Stepping into the lift doors, visitors might picture themselves ascending a rocket silo.

Adorning one wall of the conference room is a statement-making relief of Gagarin’s helmeted face. Dozens of saucer pendant lights hang at various lengths over the table in this area, achieving the effect of a virtual asteroid belt. Plus, the reflective tabletop acts like the moon, reflecting light all around the chamber.

The designers adhered strictly to a blue and white color palette (with stainless steel accents) for this project — the hues Gagarin would have seen as he blasted off from the earth into the heavens for the first time. Alabaster and gray floor tiles are reminiscent of clouds, and much of the seating is upholstered in a deep, electric blue, mimicking the night sky. A gradient-printed glass hallway mirrors that sensation as patrons pass through. “The color reminds us of a rocket shooting into the mesosphere,” Akhremenkova says.

Large, flat circles of lighting in the meeting rooms simulate solar flares. Even the bathrooms hint at outer space with their hovering orb toilets and planet-like mirrors. Still, the lounge’s most overt nod to astronaut travel is an acrylic-lined “capsule,” an abstract version of Gagarin’s own transport into the cosmos, Vostok 1. While patrons relax inside the dark, circular booth, “it passes on this amazing story to a new generation,” Akhremenkova notes. “My seven-year-old daughter took part in the advertising shoot and still recalls the capsule with delight.”

The VOX team not only did a stellar job on the VIP lounge aesthetic, but they also paid thorough attention to the practical elements. “Apart from fulfillment of applicable mandatory requirements, it’s also essential … to create [a] comfortable atmosphere and the feeling that the company truly cares about every individual passenger,” said Akhremenkova in an interview with Design Mate. “In particular, when designing the premises interior, we carefully considered the availability and location of electric sockets, since Wi-Fi access and the ability to freely use the electronic gadgets are highly important for the passengers…When the interior is well-designed even in such small details, then you will probably feel yourself calm and comfortable in such an environment.”

According to the company’s website, Vox’s philosophy is that “architecture and interior design are exercise[s] in the structural arrangement of space and rewiring the mind.” The firm has already completed several other Russian priority lounges, including The Horizon in the Platov airport, and they all exhibit the idea the idea that true architectural value manifests itself in “abundant space, infinity, openness, and freedom as a lifestyle.”

The post Russian Airport Lounge Recalls the Glory of Space Flight first appeared on Dornob.

Cows roaming pastures wearing VR headsets may sound like an offbeat idea for a children’s TV show, but in present-day Russia, it’s very much a reality. Scientists recently began fitting herds with them as part of an experiment sponsored by the Moscow region’s Ministry of Agriculture.

The Reasoning Behind the Research

With research around the world indicating that calm, happy cows yield better milk and beef than those who are stressed out and treated like nothing more than factory products, the RusMoloko farm in Moscow’s Ramensky district took it upon themselves to conduct their own experiments on the matter. Based on reports that some Wagyu farmers who surrounded their cattle with mood lighting reported a higher-quality beef yield, as well as one of a Missouri farmer who insisted his cows produced higher-quality milk when he played music for them, the Ministry issued a public statement explaining the logic behind their decision: “Examples of dairy farms from different countries show that in a calm atmosphere, the quantity, and sometimes the quality, of milk increases markedly.”

The Implementation Process

VR designers and veterinarians joined forces with Russian farmers in Krasnogorsk, a city located just northwest of the Russian capital. There, they brainstormed ways to create an environment they envisioned cows would find soothing and positive. That turned out to be a seemingly endless idyllic summer field covered with a variety of untouched grasses, swaddled in sunshine under a faultless sky of blue. The team modified VR headsets to fit the cows’ heads and accommodate their vision so the image was as clear and steady as possible and then loaded a simulation of the aforementioned scene.

The cows’ attitudes seemed to improve almost immediately, with the researchers emphasizing “reduced anxiety” and “improved moods” among the group. No longer were they subjected to the depressing weather or scant grass that made them grumpy. Instead, the VR images seemed to relax them, which in turn increased their intake of grass, silage, and hay, and perhaps due to better digestion, their production of more — and higher-quality — milk.

A Totally New Concept?

Back in 1908, E.A. Stuart purchased 360 acres of farmland in Washington state to found Carnation Farms. He began a selective breeding program of Holstein cows to increase milk production, which was eventually used worldwide. He also believed happy cows were just as important as healthy ones, making a point to treat all his cows with gentleness and compassion, with no stress or mistreatment. Stuart also maintained that this made them produce more and better milk than their counterparts.

Two years earlier, in a 1906 marketing meeting, Stuart was explaining how his pampered cows were so productive. A woman at the firm casually mentioned that “they must be very contented cows.” In 1907, that comment inspired what would become one of the most iconic taglines in food history: “Carnation Condensed Milk, the milk from contented cows.”

The jury’s still out on whether the VR masks significantly increase milk production and/or quality. If you see herds of milk cows wearing headsets on your next drive through the countryside, you’ll know the experiment was a success.

The post Russian Cows Fitted with VR Headsets to Reduce Anxiety and Produce More Milk first appeared on Dornob.

The debate rages on about whether allowing the statues to remain means we are honoring those leaders’s outdated beliefs, but now there’s also a new question at hand: when the statues fall, what exactly do we do with them?

For some international insight, we can look to a sculpture park in Russia called Muzeon, also known as the Fallen Monument Park. It began with a single statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Soviet Union’s feared secret police, whose likeness was pulled down by protestors in 1991 and dumped in a vacant lot. Soon after that, other historical figures were taken down and added to the statue graveyard. It wasn’t long before fun, contemporary statues representing fairy tale characters and literary figures (taken down for myriad reasons) also started being added to the mix. Today, the once vacant lot has officially become part of the famed Gorky Park, where citizens stroll, picnic, and nap.

It seems that Russians feel the statue cemetery represents the deeper, darker parts of a history peppered with regime changes. For a time, rage and desperation had the country erasing remnants of communism altogether, but once the Soviet Union fell, new hardships and everyday life took the steam out of the movement, and the statues were mostly left alone.

Although Russians recognize that these leaders did unconscionable acts, they don’t feel the history can or should be erased entirely by destroying the statues that represent previous eras.

“It’s one thing what statues mean when they are in conspicuous sites, in main squares and big streets,” says Masha Lipman, a political analyst who has studied Russia’s changing relationship to its monuments. “It’s quite another thing when statues like that are collected among many others in a park.”

One historically relevant example is the pink granite statue of Stalin, standing tall with a broken nose as a result of its original dismantling. In an anti-Stalin statement, an installation of 282 stone heads in a cage by sculptor Yevgeny Chubarov symbolizes the Soviet dictator’s countless victims. Chubarov donated the work to Muzeon on the condition it be displayed right next to Stalin. Together, the juxtaposing works tell a story of a history that can’t simply be erased by destroying one statue.

“I consider these sculptures to be part of our history,” says Artyom Golbin, a park guide and historian. “The history of Russia — and any other country — has different periods, some of them bad, some of them good. Still, we have to remember them, and these sculptures are an important reminder of Soviet times.”

“The Russian experience should give some food for thought to those who are engaged in toppling statues in the U.S. these days,” adds Lipman. “Fighting with symbols of the past does not necessarily help solve problems of the present.”

The post Russia’s Fallen Monument Park Gives a New Context to Toppled Historical Statues first appeared on Dornob.

Created by ad agency Instinct as part of the brand’s 20th anniversary in Russia, the campaign features six designs for homemade forts and tents: Cåstle, Wigwåm, Cåve, Cåmpingtent, Förtress, and Höuse. Of course, the brand’s own products are featured as the components of each one, but you can always get creative and replace them with whatever you have on hand.

“Cåstle” uses four chairs, a vertical clothing stand, two sheets, clothespins, a battery-powered string light, a blanket, and three pillows to create a spacious illuminated fort that’s probably big enough for adults to use as well as children, if you’re so inclined.

“Förtress” consists of a couch and its various cushions, a sheet, clothespins, a blanket, and pillows. The cushions are lifted up and used to create a barrier, while the seat provides cover overhead.

“Wigwåm” mimics the shape of an indigenous tipi with a clothing stand, sheet, books, rope, another string light, pillows, and clips. You could probably use tent poles, crutches, or even branches if you don’t have the “TJUSIG” element handy.

“Höuse” is probably the simplest and most familiar shape, made by simply draping a couple sheets over a table and securing them with clothespins and books. Add a light and a stuffed animal if you like.

“Cåmpingtent” replaces the table with a clothes rack and adds an extra fun element: the octopus-shaped “Pressa” hanging clothes dryer in the center for the string lights.

“Cåve” uses an armchair, a sheet, books, a battery-powered string light, and three pillows for a small and simple fort that will take no time at all to clean back up when the kids are done with it.

You can find real-world examples of what these forts look like on Instagram under the hashtag #явдомикеИКЕА. The results are pretty cute!

IKEA has had its own unique ways of responding to the coronavirus pandemic in its various locations around the world while many of its stores remain closed. For instance, the furniture giant shared its recipe for its famous sweet and savory Swedish meatballs so you can make them at home, including the “iconic Swedish cream sauce” made with flour, butter, cream, soy sauce, and Dijon mustard.

In Germany, the company allowed the massive parking lot of a closed store near Frankfurt to be used by observants of Islam to pray together during Ramadan while observing social distancing laws. Over 800 Muslims were able to safely gather while remaining at least six feet apart for an important closing prayer on Eid al-Fitr, the end of the month-long fast.

The post Bored Kids? Try IKEA Russia’s 6 DIY Fort Designs first appeared on Dornob.

Moscow’s Khodynka Field has a long and storied history that began in the 14th century as a battlefield and host of state occasions. It’s best known as the site of the first Russian-powered flight in 1910, and a regular airfield in use through the late 1980s. Its most recent redevelopment includes the Russian National Air & Space Museum, as well as many new commercial and residential buildings. Tucked among them is Café Polet, a new restaurant designed to pay tribute to the site’s aviation history.

Set within the old Frunze Central Aerodrome, which closed in 2003, Café Polet shows off its history in references both subtle and direct almost everywhere you look. New York-based studio Asthetique has created stunning retro-futuristic interiors full of aeronautical nods with distinctive Soviet flair. There’s something dramatic to see at every turn, from bubble-shaped porthole windows at the entrance to blocky winged statues reminiscent of USSR monuments and early sci-fi films clinging to the columns all throughout.

“The idea was to take aeronautics beyond the machine level, to show humans taking flight,” says Asthetique founder and creative director Julien Albertini in Interior Design magazine. Similarly, the entry’s striped concrete floor is modeled on the markings of airport runways, “taking the idea of a landing strip, but then modernizing it.”

Against the textural concrete walls leans a jagged mountainous landscape of black birch wood paneling punctuated by shiny chrome doors, recalling the Russian Constructivism artistic and architectural philosophy of the early 20th century. Lighting hangs from flying saucer-like copper discs, some set at jaunty angles.

Within the second dining room, a bas-relief panel of plaster-coated plywood creates a striking sculptural effect on the wall. Monochromatic murals depict space travel imagery like astronauts lounging on the moon. Of all the stylistic choices, the most literal stands out as the most fun: tiny back-lit stainless steel airplane silhouettes dotting various surfaces.

Softer elements come into play, too, balancing all of the brutish materials and geometries. Metal screens covered in trailing green ivy separate the dining spaces. The chairs and banquettes are upholstered in soft velvet in shades of gray, beige, and blush. The designers consciously chose pastels to complement the otherwise neutral color scheme, infusing the restaurant with a sense of calm.

Cafe Polet is located at #2 Khodinskiy Blvd, offering a menu of European and Georgian dishes crafted by chef Aleksandr Airapetyan, with recent standouts including a salad of grilled squid, smoked baby potatoes, and truffle mayonnaise.

The post Moscow’s Café Polet Celebrates the Retro-Fabulous Look of Soviet Aviation first appeared on Dornob.

Made primarily of monolithic reinforced concrete, the 300-square-meter (3,229 square foot) home has a fanciful organic design that would somehow be at home in the universes of both The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. It rises from the landscape like a natural hill punctured by rounded skylights and chimneys, with a double-height glass facade facing both a reflecting pool and swimming pool outside.

Niko Architect set out to create a balance reflective of a living organism, one that rejects the idea of architecture and nature existing independently of each other. In fact, they argue that futuristic architecture is “a natural extension of nature.” The different functional zones of the house are separate enough to provide privacy and a sense of calm and quiet, but connected enough to make up a single whole, including the outdoor areas.

Instead of being bound to conventional ideas of how homes should be shaped, they decided to allow the composition of the project to develop freely according to what felt harmonious. But one of the major considerations was designing the property so it could have that feeling of being in a remote natural place without sacrificing any modern comforts. That meant tucking most of the interior volumes beneath the artificial hill, with constellations of skylights and the glass facades keeping them from feeling dark and cut off from the lushly landscaped yard. From the perspective of the inhabitants, gazing out at the water, their neighbors might as well not exist at all. Yet, in the photos, you can see those other houses just peeking over the fence line.

Inside, “House in the Landscape” is sculptural and minimalist, with hardly a straight line in sight. Curving white plaster staircases and natural materials like teak wood reinforce the connection to the outdoors, adding to the overall ambiance that “favorably affects the internal emotional state.”

The Niko team adds that their main inspiration for the design was “the metabolism of organic architecture. As a result of the inexpressive environment, the fundamental concept base was the integration of the building into an artificially created landscape and the inextricable connection of architecture with the open courtyard site structure. This is a dialogue with the natural order context. The project was created taking into account the living moving space for human life as a creation and a component of this nature. It is a union of biological images, engineering, and architecture.”

“The architectural composition of the building develops from the outside to the inside. It is interconnected with the environment, being an organic architecture with a philosophy of metabolism. Temporary and permanent components are clearly traced: the framework and the changing essence of the surrounding world, the biology of architecture, [and] the unity of architectural and natural design.”

The post Star Wars Meets Lord of the Rings: Futuristic Organic House in Russia first appeared on Dornob.

The results stand to forever change the diets of astronauts, whose options are notoriously limited due to microgravity. Gone are the days when they could only eat freeze-dried items or liquified foods squeezed out of tubes. Still, it’ll be awhile before they can enjoy anything that produces crumbs, which could potentially get sucked into the spacecraft’s air filters or electrical systems.

The space crew established proof of concept by producing a small piece of bovine muscle tissue on the space station. It started with just a few cells extracted from a cow through a small biopsy, which acted as the material “bio ink” for the 3D bio-printer. Mixed with a “broth” of nutrients and growth factors, the cells developed into a small steak within the printer, which is equipped with a magnetic force that holds the cells together as they reproduce.

3D bio-printing has previously been used on Earth to reproduce materials like cartilage, but the process is a little different in space. Aleph had to place the cells in vials and load them onto the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft, which took off from Kazakhstan on September 25th. The International Space Station is located about 250 miles away from Earth.

“[The] maturing of bio-printed organs and tissues in zero gravity proceeds much faster than in Earth’s gravity conditions,” Aleph External Relations Manager Yoav Reisler told Space.com. “The tissue is being printed from all sides simultaneously, like making a snowball, while most other bio-printers create it layer by layer. On Earth, the cells always fall downward. In zero gravity, they hang in space and interfere only with each other. Layer-by-layer printing in gravity requires a support structure. Printing in zero gravity allows tissue to be created only with cell material, without any intermediate support.”

Aleph Farms hopes to prove that cultivated meat can be produced “anytime, anywhere, in any condition,” according to Didier Toubia, co-founder and chief executive at the company. He says the experiment translates to getting results on Earth, too, representing the first step toward ensuring food security for generations to come while preserving our natural resources.

Though it could eventually help improve the diets of astronauts, lab-grown meat could more immediately help alleviate the strain that conventional livestock farming places on water supplies and land. It takes up to 5,200 gallons of water to produce just one 2.2-pound steak, and as the climate crisis intensifies, resources are becoming more precious than ever.

It’s definitely a step forward, but it will be a while before you see lab-grown meat at the grocery store. Aleph and other food bio-technology companies are still working on refining the process, and the flavor, which is reportedly not yet up to par.

The post Astronauts Successfully Grow Meat in Space for the First Time first appeared on Dornob.

The DD16 Floating Cabin, designed by BIO and produced by the DublDom factory, measures just 172 square feet, but the ample sunshine coming in through its floor-to-ceiling glazed front wall and its open floor plan make it feel larger than it really is. The front wall is protected from the weather by a narrow overhanging porch, which also acts as a handy ledge if you’re climbing up onto it from the water. It’s designed for installation in remote places with the toughest of climate conditions and consists of two prefabricated modules.

The frame is made of laminated wooden timbers, all of which have had circles milled out of them to reduce their weight. Once the frame was erected, the builders filled all of the empty spaces with polyurethane foam, simultaneously maintaining the structure’s lightness and making it impervious to cold winds. It also makes the walls more rigid, enabling lighter finishing materials like thin plywood on the inside and composite aluminum sheets on the outside. The aluminum wraps over the sides and roof in one seamless sheet to keep water and snow from piercing the shell of the house.

This same aluminum material is carried inside for the cabinets and shelves in the cabin’s minimalist kitchen, which also features a sink, a countertop, a stove, and a dining table held aloft by a cable attached to the ceiling, so it can fold up into the wall when not in use. The home also boasts a full-sized bathroom with a toilet, a tub and shower, a double bed on a platform with built-in storage, and a living area centered around a cozy wood burning stove.

The durable exterior makes it easy to transport, and it’s designed to attach to a crane or helicopter, so it can be plunked right into its chosen destination by a single operator regardless of local weather conditions. The DD16 Floating Cabin is also fully autonomous, with solar panels providing power for electricity, water coming from the lake, and a composting toilet.

The prototype was placed on a lake in the Moscow area and put up for rent through the DublDomClub, a vacation housing service offered by the manufacturer, for about $84 USD per night. According to BIO Architects, this is a great way to test out the house and get feedback from a wide variety of people.

“It is an uncommon experience for our visitors to swim on a boat and spend a day in a compact floating house,” they explain. “The house is located close to Moscow but due to the glazed facade that is facing the wood, it feels like you are on a wild river somewhere in the forest thicket. The wind turns the house to the different sides and the picture outside changes all the time.”

The post Floating Cabin Withstands Harsh Winters first appeared on Dornob.